The present invention relates generally to dental protective devices, and more particularly, to a barrier system to protect dental personnel and their patients from cross-contamination.
The onslaught of diseases related to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), and hepatitis has changed the manner in which dentistry is delivered in dental offices and institutions. Prior to awareness of the hazards of HIV, AIDS, and hepatitis, dentists treated their patients without the use of gloves, masks, protective eyewear, or gowns. Now, the use of gloves, masks, protective eyewear, and the following of stringent sterilization techniques all are mandated by regulatory authorities, such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
In the medical profession, operating procedures are generally performed in a designated operating room for a specific period of uninterrupted time. As a result, medical personnel can both scrub and change gowns before each operation.
In contrast, dental procedures usually do not involve a great amount of uninterrupted time. The dentist, dental hygienist, and dental assistants frequently leave the operatory and must go to another area of the office for supplies and so forth. Usually the dentist must also leave the operatory in order to check a hygiene patient or to see another patient undergoing dental treatment in another operatory. Dentists and their assistants who are seeing another patient usually remove their gloves and replace them with a new pair of gloves before treating the next patient. However, the gowns worn by the dentists and their assistants are usually not removed and replaced with new gowns before seeing another patient. The existing gowns may have accumulated aerosol spray from the prior patient, which may carryblood-borne or saliva-borne pathogens. This creates a risk of cross-contamination of both the operatory environment and the patients as the same gowns come into contact with them.
It will be appreciated, therefore, that there exists a need for an improved dental protective system to greatly reduce the risk of cross-contamination in the performance of dental procedures, but which will still allow dental personnel to easily move between patients. The present invention fulfills this need.